


Surprise Party

by ProtoNeoRomantic



Series: Patch Works [7]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Gen, Revelations, Swimming Pools, Teen Angst, Teen Pregnancy, coolness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-05
Updated: 2014-11-05
Packaged: 2018-02-24 04:42:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2568569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProtoNeoRomantic/pseuds/ProtoNeoRomantic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shocking news for Buffy brings Willow's pool party to a screeching halt.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Surprise Party

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first version of Buffy finding out she is pregnant that I ever wrote long before either ATPFP or Coldest Winter (let alone the IATS or Blood Screaming) were solidly formed enough to be differentiated. But I set it in early March, right after the Sadie Hawkins Dance, so that's where I'm putting it in the chronology.

Despite the coolness of the March night, more than a dozen teens splashed happily in the new, heated, above ground pool in the Rosenbergs' back yard. It was amazing, Willow reflected, how much a pool could increase your popularity overnight, almost like magic. She kept having to metaphorically pinch herself. Here it was, Saturday night and all of her friends were here. Not at the bronze, but here. Heck, some of them weren't even really her friends. All the guys in Oz's band were there, and their girlfriends, which unfortunately included Devon's new love interest, Harmony Kendall. If anyone had told Willow three months ago that Harmony and Cordelia would be glaring daggers at each other in her back yard by Spring, she wouldn't have know whether to be more shocked that they had been willing to be seen at her house or that she had willingly invited them.

Amy, following Willow's gaze to the two cheer leaders (who were out to raise competitive flirtatious slashing to the level of an Olympic sport) quipped, “We could just turn them both into frogs and be done with it.

“Don't tempt me!” Willow laughed. A pool was definitely way better for her popularity than magic.

“What's up with Buffy, anyway?” Amy asked, mildly concerned, but still very cheerful, “She went in to use the bathroom like twenty minutes ago.”

Willow's heart dipped a little. “Has it really been that long?” she asked worriedly.

“She's not... avoiding me, is she?” Amy asked, her own spirits falling a little. “I mean that whole thing with the...”

“Turning her into a rat?” Willow supplied, making an uncomfortable face. “No, I'm sure she—”

“I mean, I've apologized, like a million times,” Amy started to argue, “And it was really all Xand—”

“Amy,” Willow interrupted firmly, almost impatiently, “Buffy is not avoiding you. I think it's... something else,” she added, avoiding her old friend's eyes. “I—I'd better go check on her. Excuse me.”

~~~~~

The plan had been simple enough. Today was Buffy's ninth day past ovulation, the day that (according the the packaging on Sheila's stockpile of unused test kits) she should be able to learn with 74% accuracy that she was not pregnant. In the morning would be day 10, 82% accuracy. The plan was to stay over at Willow's after the pool party and take the test in the morning. After more than a week of living with 'could be as high as fifty-fifty' a four out of five chance that she was not about to fall any further down this rabbit hole seemed like a lot of reassurance. But the problem was that she couldn't relax, couldn't act naturally, couldn't enjoy the party. Meanwhile, the two Dr.s Rosenberg still had that huge stash of leftover pregnancy test waiting right upstairs, and the idea of knowing the odds were only one in four had suddenly seemed very comforting.

There was a hesitant knock on the bathroom door. “Just a minute,” Buffy called shakily, quickly wiping her eyes and nose on a huge wad of toilet paper as she pulled it from the roll and shoved it into the trash can on top of the test kit.

“Buffy,” Willow said gently against the other side of the door, “Buffy, it's me. Can I come in?” Buffy stood, wiped her eyes a little more and came out into the hallway instead. “Are you okay?” Willow asked. Buffy shook her head, unable to stop new tears from falling. “Are you pregnant?” Willow asked. Buffy nodded. “Oh, Buffy,” Willow half gasped, half groaned, afraid she might start crying too, “What are you going to do?”

“I don't know,” Buffy admitted miserably, her voice a ghost of a whisper. “I can't... I can't go back out there!”

“Well of course not!” Willow agreed warmly, squeezing her hand in an it's-okay-that-it's-not-okay kind of way. “Wait in my room. I'll send everyone home. Or to the Bronze more likely. It's only a little after eight.”

“Oh, Willow!” Buffy sobbed, practically falling into her best friend's arms, “I ruined your party, I'm so sorry!”

“Shush,” Willow whispered, smoothing the hair back from Buffy's face the way a mother would have. “Don't worry about that. It's not important.”

“Oh God!” Declared Cordelia, seeming to appear out of nowhere, sounding bored, indignant and dramatic all at the same time as only she could, “Don't tell me the world's ending again.” She said it like she thought the total annihilation of the Universe might be kind of a hassle, like having to stand in a long check-lout line.

“No, _Cordelia_ ,” Willow replied, morosely, exasperatedly, “not exactly.”

At last, Cordelia seemed to digest the emotional gravity of the situation, whatever situation it was. Her demeanor shifted from theatrical to supportive in an instant, as if someone had held up a new cue card. “Oh God,” she repeated, somehow both less dramatically and more seriously, “Buffy, what's wrong?”

“Cordy...” Buffy managed to croak in a low, hoarse voice, “just leave us alone, please.”

“I will,” Cordelia retorted testily, her mood shifting again, slipping into another familiar position with an almost audible click, “if you'll get out of my way.” She jestured towards the bathroom door. “It's kind of an emergency,” she informed them.

Willow looked like she was about to dole out a good tongue lashing, but one glance from Buffy was enough to make her hold her tongue. “Go on,” she said to Buffy. “I'll be in in a minute.” Then to Cordelia, “Sorry, go ahead. And when you're done could you do me a favor?”

“What?” Cordelia demanded, almost defiantly.

“Run downstairs and tell everyone, thank you for coming, but the party's over.”

~~~~~

Willow went to the master bathroom to get Buffy some Kleenex and a Dixie cup of water. She had hardly had time to hand them to her when there was a gentle knock on the door, immediately followed by Oz's head entering the room. “What's going on, Wil,” he asked, calm as ever, but in the super serious way he had when he thought something might actually be wrong.

“Wh—What'd'ya mean?” Willow covered guilty, dismally failing to sound upbeat and worry free.

“I just got asked to leave by Cordelia,” Oz informed her. “She wouldn't tell me why.” Then Oz looked at Buffy as if noticing she was there for the first time. “Jesus,” he said, traces of actual concern in his voice now, “are you alright?”

Before Buffy could even begin to formulate an answer to that, they heard Xander's voice shouting in the hallway, “I'm not going anywhere until I talk to Buffy!”

“It's none of your business, Xander Harris!” Cordelia shouted back, stomping up the stairs behind him. “At least, it had better not be!”

“Oh God,” Buffy moaned, covering her face with a pillow.

“They know,” Willow agreed grimly.

Buffy uncovered her face and sat up, looking sternly at Willow, “Yes, but _how_ do they know?” she asked. Oz raised an eyebrow but refrained from asking the obvious, _'What_ do they know?'

Xander burst into the room with out a hint of a knock and demanded, “Is it true!?!”

“It's none of your business,” Buffy shot back, in a tone that should have been sufficient warning to anyone.

“It better not be,” Cordelia reiterated, standing in the doorway behind him.

“I just said it's not,” Buffy reminded her nearly choking on her cold exasperation. “And when did you get so... perceptive anyway?”

“So it is true!” Xander bellowed in wounded triumph.

“You left the box on the counter,” Cordelia noted by way of explanation. To Oz she added, “Buffy's pregnant.”

“Thank you for clearing that up(!)” Buffy sneered.

“What?” Cordelia said, as if she genuinely had no idea why Buffy would be bothered by anything she'd said, “I'm trying to help.”

“Who else knows?” Buffy asked, pressing down hard on her temper.

“No one, I swear,” Cordelia assured her. “I didn't even tell Xander until everyone else had cleared out, and then I couldn't get him to leave, he's so in love with you.”

“I'll kill him!” Xander seethed, as if to confirm what Cordelia had said.

“Excuse you!” Cordelia snapped, rounding on him with a roll of her head, “She's not your girlfriend, I am, remember?”

“Well it's about time somebody did!” Xander persisted hotly, still on the subject of killing.

“Oh,” said Cordy, catching on, sounding almost relieved, “No, it can't be him...” Willow tried frantically to signal with her eyes for Cordelia to shut up, but Queen C. was oblivious as usual. “...Vampires are sterile,” she explained helpfully. “I read it during one of those boring all night research sessions we're all forced to live through.”

“You know what, Cordelia?” Buffy barked impatiently, rising from the bed at last, “I'm not sure how any of this is your business either!”

 


End file.
